Vote Delayed On Lambert Parking, Ground Transportation Rates

Airport commissioners have delayed a vote on measures to boost parking and ground transportation rates at Lambert Airport.

via Flickr/Michael R. Allen

A proposal that would have boosted parking rates at Lambert Airport just before the start of the busy holiday travel seasons is on hold for now.

Commissioners were expected to vote today on a proposal that would boost the rates for parking at the garages for Terminals 1 and 2, as well as three of the airport's four surface lots, plus made a series of changes to the rates charged to ground transportation like taxis, hotel shuttles, and charter buses. The parking rates would have gone up Nov. 1, though the ground transportation rates would have changed in January.

"We thought we had done a good job of getting out there," Hamm-Niebruegge said. "I think for us, we felt it would be better if there are questions, and there seems to be confusion and there’s not enough people that are aware of it, that we do more do that."

Currently, the airport charges $2.50 per hour or fraction thereof at the terminal garages. The new proposal would charge $5 for every two hours or fraction thereof. Hamm-Niebruegge says the change is designed to encourage people to use Lambert’s free cell phone lots, freeing up space for longer-term parking in those garages. The garage at Terminal 2 is full almost every day, she said, and the Terminal 1 lot is consistently 80 to 90 percent full.

"From a business case, it absolutely makes sense. But at the end of the day, that business case needs to make sense to everybody," Hamm-Niebruegge said.

Hamm-Niebruegge says the parking and ground transportation fee increases will generate about $1 million. Some of that, she said, could lower what it costs the airlines to operate at Lambert, perhaps encouraging more flights.

Some passengers at Lambert Airport will be allowed to keep their belts and shoes on while passing through security checkpoints.

The Transportation Security Administration is including St. Louis in a program to make check-in more convenient for frequent fliers. The TSA says the program, which has been tested at seven major airports, will expand to 28 others, including Lambert, this year.

Congressman Lacy Clay of St. Louis recalls seeing the airport just hours after the tornado struck on Good Friday.

“Once I got to the airport, I could not believe all of the glass that was blown out of the structure," Clay said. "And then looking at the parking lot: seeing the cars and vans that were on top of each other. It was just amazing.”